Goals and Motivations
Information systems are becoming increasingly complex: they need to satisfy user needs and carry out tasks that are becoming progressively more complicated and cross language and media barriers; moreover, they have to manage increasing amounts of information which is often heterogeneous and demands for insightful access to it. Therefore, their design and development requires the integration of components and technologies coming from different areas and domains, which are rarely present in a single research group, as well as the gathering of researchers and developers with multidisciplinary competencies able not only to go into the details of their own specific sector/component, but also to obtain an overall comprehension of the big picture and the interactions with the other domains.
We consider experimental evaluation – both laboratory and interactive – a key means for supporting and fostering the development of multilingual and multimedia information systems which are more adherent to the new user needs.
PROMISE aims at advancing the experimental evaluation of complex multimedia and multilingual information systems in order to support individuals, commercial entities, and communities who design, develop, employ, and improve such complex systems.
The overall goal of PROMISE is to deliver a unified environment collecting data, knowledge, tools, methodologies, and the user community.
PROMISE will provide a virtual and open laboratory for conducting participative research and experimentation in which it will be possible to carry out, advance and bring automation into the evaluation and benchmarking of complex multimedia and multilingual information systems, by facilitating management and offering access, curation, preservation, re-use, analysis, visualisation, and mining of the collected experimental data.